Better Left Unsaid
by Aesshen
Summary: The group stops to rest before entering the Onmyouden, leaving ample time for Yuya to get on Kyo's nerves in ways he'd never admit. One-shot, sort of fluffy.


Disclaimer: I don't own Samurai Deeper Kyo. Unfortunately. That honor belongs to Kamijou Akimine and Kodansha and whoever else. Notes: Set in a sort of made up interval between the Juuyuushi cooking the bear stew and the group's entrance into the Onmyouden. I figured they'd been in the Mibu territory for a couple hours already and could use a nap… not that anyone actually gets any sleep here. 

Warnings: What passes for realistic Kyo-Yuya fluff. Implied sexual thoughts.

Better Left Unsaid 

"Hey… Kyo?"

"What is it now, woman?"

Unusually, she didn't even bother complaining about his rudeness. "Umm… I was wondering."

He almost glared at her. "Do you expect me to care?"

"Well, I was sort of curious," She was ignoring his mocking tone, which irritated him. Where was the fun if she didn't fly into a temper when he baited her?

There was no help for it. She was bound and determined to have a serious conversation with him and he was too tired to try and deflect her. "About what?"

Her eyes swept across the plaza that lay before the Onmyouden. The Sanada Juuyuushi were in a loose huddle near the stairs, some napping and some talking; the Shiseiten were arguing as usual. Benitora was talking with Sasuke. All in all, this short rest before they entered the Onmyouden proper was as close to a scene of domestic tranquility as they would probably ever get. Even with Akari's healing, everyone was too tired to fight.

"After this is over," She began, paused, and considered her next words. "After you've got your body back and you've defeated Kyoshiro and the Red King and all."

He allowed himself to be happy for a moment that she considered it a given that he would defeat Kyoshiro.

"After everything's over… what are you going to do?"

It was embarrassing to admit, but he didn't really know the answer to her question. Everything would be over in a day or so, however long it took them to get to the Red Tower. And then… what?

"Like I'd tell you."

She didn't complain at his rudeness or ask him again. "I don't know either."

It was kind of irritating that she'd seen through him so easily. How did she manage that, anyway?

"For the past four years, it's all been about vengeance for me. And once I find out all the answers I need, what am I going to do? I could go back to being a regular girl, but…"

"Give it up. No one would marry you, anyway," He said automatically. _Like I'd let them._

She did bristle at this. "Kyo! I… you… ugh!"

And with that she stormed away to where the others were sitting and loudly and abruptly joined their conversation.

_The hell…? What's her problem now?_ She'd been totally ignoring his insults, and then she broke off the talk because of a little thing like that?

An idea blossomed inside his brain, an impossible, frightening, and oddly appealing sort of idea. He flattered himself that he wasn't as clueless about women as, say, Kyoshiro, who had all the common sense of a squashed bug. He knew that when a woman started talking to you about her plans for the future, and then broke off in disarray when you said that no one would marry her, it usually meant something.

Pride dictated one thing in this scenario. Certain deep-seated desires and instincts dictated another.

Yukimura's teasing voice, fresh in his memory from the hot bear soup incident not twenty minutes before, wafted at him.

"You and Yuya-san are both quite popular, it seems. But if you don't stake your claim, someone else will get there before you, you know?"

He turned the thought around in his mind for at least a minute. By the end of it, the faces of his subordinates and allies currently talking to Yuya were all starting to look like remarkably, and irritatingly, like Kyoshiro.

_Dignity, and pride_, he thought. _Not making a fool of myself. Not overplaying my hand before I've made sure that the circumstances are in my favor. I tried being honest once, and everyone knows how that ended up._

Yuya's laughter in reaction to something Akira had said drifted into his ears, and he shifted in his seat, an almost imperceptible gesture of discomfort. It was irritating, feeling like this. He normally felt nothing more than a kind of vague amusement when other men tried to hit on the girl – it was useless, and he knew it, and as often as not they did too.

So why was he feeling so… sensitive right now?

He wondered if it were this body's tired and dilapidated state, and instantly felt a wave of powerful longing for his own form. Then he wouldn't even need to go through this kind of confusion. He could just stake his claim, as Yukimura had said, and damn the consequences.

Truth be told, he did have a sort of answer to the question she'd asked him earlier. He knew what he'd be doing the moment he had his own body back and the Red King and Kyoshiro defeated – it involved Yuya, and a bed if such a thing were readily available. It did not involve her naiveté (or more than was fun, anyway), his arrogance, or either of their clothing.

The thought of that was nice enough to occupy him for a good amount of pleasant daydreaming, until the volume of the others' conversation increased enough to bring him back to reality again.

He cast a stealthy glance back at the group, and at the girl in particular. She was laughing again – why did she have to keep on laughing? It was all too appealing an expression on her. By the looks on Benitora and Akira's faces, they agreed with him.

Now she was talking to Akari, just the two of them. Kyo supposed that she was happy to have another "woman" in the group. Certainly, the two of them seemed to be getting along almost suspiciously well.

That reminded him of her reaction when she'd heard about the promise he'd made to Akari. It wasn't like he was serious – Akari had no chance of ever getting an actual hit on his face, and besides he'd been rather drunk when they'd made the bet anyhow. But Yuya, typically, seemed to take it as a personal affront.

She'd been oddly cute, trying to kill him for promising marriage to someone else.

He tried, almost automatically, to unthink that thought. His attraction to Yuya was something he refused to voice, even mentally – and the implications of the second half of the statement were almost as uncomfortable as their earlier conversation. Fortunately, he was saved from any further frustrating thoughts by the appearance of the object of his deliberations.

"Kyo?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry for running off on you earlier," She plopped herself down next to him, looking rather sincere. "Though you shouldn't have been so rude, anyway."

He ignored the last bit and waited for whatever she was going to say.

"Anyway, I was thinking, after everything's done… would it be okay if I traveled with you for a while longer? I mean, just until I find something to do," She was blushing, heavily. Kyo wondered what the chances were that Akari had coached her in that last line.

There was a range of responses he could make to her. He could tell her to do as she liked – that was his first thought, the normal thing he said to people who wanted to follow him around. He could also tell her that she was not, in fact, allowed to leave his company until he gave her express permission, which happened to be the truth.

Somewhere between honesty and pride lurked an answer which could satisfy the worry he felt when she laughed at Akira's jokes and stood up for Benitora and most of all, the deep-seated resentment that gripped him whenever she lugged Kyoshiro's medicine box up another steep hill. He waited just long enough to make her nervous, and then said it.

"I don't mind."

Her eyes widened hugely, and she murmured something inarticulate and breathy. Then Yukimura (smirking, the bastard) came up and said something about moving on, and they did, but something remained between the two of them after that moment.

They had a future of sorts. Now all they had to do was survive long enough to enjoy it.


End file.
